11 Child Prodigies Who Had Done Amazing Things by Age 11

1. Hungarian chess grandmaster Judit Polgar (1976-) began playing in tournaments at the age of six and, by the age of eleven, she had defeated her first grandmaster, Vladimir Kovacivic. She became the best female chess player in history. No other female has ever won a game against a men’s chess world champion; she has beaten nine of them.

2. American professional billiards player Willie Mosconi (1913-1993), at the age of six and standing on a box, played an exhibition match against the reigning world billiards champion in front of a packed house. He lost that match, but it earned him some major attention. By the age of eleven, Mosconi was the juvenile champion and regularly held popular trick shot exhibitions. He picked up the awesome nickname “Mr. Pocket Billiards” and won more World Straight Pool Championships (15) than anyone. He was also Paul Newman’s pool mentor as he prepared for his role in the 1961 movie, The Hustler.

3. French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) wrote a treatise on vibrating bodies at the age of nine and scrawled his first proof on a wall with a piece of coal when he was eleven. He is probably best remembered for Pascal’s theorem (something about hexagons or whatever), which he threw out there at age 16. Oh, and he also invented the mechanical calculator.

4. German composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is the child prodigy poster child. He began playing the harpsichord at age three and learned to play his first piece of music three days before his fifth birthday. He was composing his own music at five and, at six, embarked on a three-and-a-half year European tour with his father and older sister who was not too shabby of a musician herself.

5. Korean mega-genius Kim Ung-Yong (1962-) could have conversations at six months, could read in Japanese, Korean, German and English by the age of four and could perform complex calculus by the time he was five. From the ages of three to six, he sat in on University physics courses. The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Kim as having the world’s highest IQ which is estimated to be over 210. Yowza.

6. Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) showed his talents for art at a very early age. His mother claims (as mothers often do) that his first words word “piz, piz” – short for “lapis” (Spanish for “pencil”). There is non-mom-derived evidence of his prodigious talent: Picasso drew “Picador” when he was just eight years old.

7. American actress Anna Paquin (1982-) won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her debut acting performance in The Piano when she was just eleven years old. Why do I choose to showcase Ms. Paquin here instead of the youngest Oscar winner in Tatum O’Neal who won at age ten? Well, Anna now plays Sookie Stackhouse on HBO’s True Blood, which only serves to exacerbate her general awesomeness.

8. Canadian hockey star Wayne Gretzky (1961-) was playing against ten-year-olds when he was only six. The uniforms intended for the ten-year-olds were far too large for the undersized Gretzky who tucked his sweater into the right side of his pants: a tradition he continued throughout his hockey career. When he was ten, he scored an incredible 378 goals and added 139 assists in just one season. Athlete prodigies need love too, you know.

9. British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) learned Greek at age three and had read all of Herodotus’s Histories and was quite familiar with Plato’s Dialogues by the age of eight. He was also more than competent in Latin and Greek and had read through most of the major Latin and Greek works, in their original languages, by the age of ten.

10. American smart kid Gregory Smith (1990-) could memorize and recite books by the time he was 14 months old and could add by 18 months. He went from second to eighth grade in one year and began high school at the age of seven, graduating with honors two years later. He entered Randolph-Macon college at ten and, there, majored in mathematics with minors in both history and biology before pursuing his masters at the University of Virginia. OK, so he’s an academic stud – fine. But wait, there’s more! The activist work he began as a pre-teen for children’s rights throughout the world has made a serious impact. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times.

11. Indian mental calculator Somani Priyanshi (1998-) took home the overall title at the most recent Mental Calculation World Cup in 2010 when she was just eleven years old. Her specialty? Square roots from six-digit numbers up to eight significant digits (Somani placed first). A couple other events at the MCWC: addition of ten numbers of ten digits each (Somani placed second) and multiplication of two numbers of eight digits (Somani placed second). Yes, her competitors were grown folks.

For 11-11-11, we’ll be posting twenty-four ’11 lists’ throughout the day. Check back 11 minutes after every hour for the latest installment, or see them all here.